In spite of this recovery, the crisis and response to it profoundly affected the globalization and development debate. The IMF, whose job is it to help resolve such crises, blamed the lax financial regulations of the governments involved, and it insisted on cuts in credit and government spending to restore macroeconomic stability. This initially deepened the recession,producing the greatest criticism the IMF has ever faced about its role in the global economy. Critics of the IMF and globalization argued that the problem was unfettered global currency markets: fixed exchange rates before the crisis had seemed to guarantee investors a high return in the booming regional economies, so money had poured into these countries from around the globe, causing a massive “bubble” in their stock and real estate markets. When the bubble burst, investors sold rapidly,causing a market panic that the IMF then deepened with its orthodox neoliberal policies. Malaysia refused IMF help, instead pursuing policies that limited the market in the short term to restore stability, and it recovered more rapidly than than other countries, though some of the others subsequently caught up. The crisis reignited the debate about the benefits and costs of globalization, especially open financial markets, in even the most successful developing economies.